indian stock market

Private insurers too show interest in the sector. Ravi Ranjan Prasad Mumbai, Feb. 6 Banking stocks were a favoured investment option for insurance companies, especially Life Insurance Corporation of India, during the December quarter. LIC's stake in PSU and private banks moved up by one to four per cent during the last quarter, as the State-owned insurance company reduced stake in several other sectors, a study of BSE data showed. Its stake in some PSU banks rose by between two and four per cent. The banks were Allahabad Bank (up 4.60 per cent), Oriental Bank of Commerce (2.60 per cent), Syndicate Bank (2.32 per cent) and Union Bank of India (2.18 per cent). In some PSU banks, LIC's stake rose by between one per cent and two per cent. These institutions were Bank of India (1.63 per cent), Indian Overseas Bank (1.59 per cent), Bank of Baroda (1.53 per cent), SBI (1.33 per cent), Canara Bank (1.21 per cent) and Punjab National Bank (0.38 per

TCS currently trades at Rs 504, implying a price to earnings multiple of 7.9 times our estimated FY11 earnings. Considering the fact that offshoring as a concept is gaining increasing acceptance, the company's move to 'full-service capabilities', its scalability, top quality management and premier positioning amongst the top offshore service providers, we expect the company to clock superior topline and bottomline growth over the long-term. We thus recommend a 'BUY' on the stock with a 2 year target price of Rs 1,150. This implies compounded annual returns of almost 52% for investors.